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Middle
East
For
decades Palestinians
and Israelis have engaged in fierce gun battles across the West Bank and Gaza
Strip. Suicide bombers are killing Israeli civilians and children. Israeli troops have
killed civilians and children. Intentional or not, innocent people on both sides are being
killed.
Palestine
Red Crescent Photograph
The conflict between
Palestinian Arabs and Jews is a modern phenomenon, which began around the turn
of the 20th century. Although these two groups have different religions
(Palestinians include Muslims, Christians and Druze), religious differences are
not the cause of the conflict. It is essentially a struggle over land.
Following World War
II, the British withdrew from their mandate of
Palestine.
On 29 November 1947
the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine
or United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181, a plan to resolve the
Arab-Israeli conflict in the British Mandate of Palestine, was approved by the
United Nations General Assembly, at the UN World Headquarters in New York.
Until
1948, the area that both groups claimed was known internationally as Palestine.
But following the war of 1948-49, the armies of Egypt, Syria, Transjordan,
Lebanon and Iraq, supported by others, attacked the newly established State of
Israel which they refused to recognize. After this conflict the land was divided into three parts: the
state of Israel, the West Bank (of the Jordan River) and the Gaza Strip. This is
a small area: approximately 10,000 square miles, or about the size of the state
of Maryland.
Jewish claims to
this land are based on the biblical promise to Abraham and his descendants, on
the fact that this was the historical site of the Jewish kingdom of Israel
(which was destroyed by the Roman Empire), and on Jews' need for a haven from
European anti-Semitism.
Palestinian Arabs'
claims to the land are based on continuous residence in the country for hundreds
of years and the fact that they represented the demographic majority. They
reject the notion that a biblical-era kingdom constitutes the basis for a valid
modern claim. If Arabs engage the biblical argument at all, they maintain that
since Abraham's son Ishmael is the forefather of the Arabs, then God's promise
of the land to the children of Abraham includes Arabs as well.
The Suez Crisis was
a war fought on Egyptian territory in 1956. The conflict pitted Egypt against an
alliance between the United Kingdom, France and Israel.
The Six-Day War was
fought between Israel and the Arab states of Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and Syria.
When Egypt expelled the United Nations Emergency Force from the Sinai Peninsula,
increased its military activity near the border, and blockaded the Straits of
Tiran to Israeli ships, Israel launched a pre-emptive attack on Egypt's airforce
fearing an imminent attack by Egypt.Jordan in turn attacked the Israeli cities
of Jerusalem and Netanya. At the war's end, Israel had gained control of
the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights.
The 2006
Israel-Lebanon conflict, known in Lebanon as the July War and in Israel as
Lebanon War II was a military conflict in Lebanon and northern Israel, primarily
between Hezbollah paramilitary forces and Israel. It started on 12 July 2006 and
ended when a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect on 14 August
2006.
United
States Caught in The Middle East Crossfire
USS
Liberty
This
photo was taken approximately 24 hours after the attack
by a
helicoptor
from the USS AMERICA (CVA-66)
During
the Six Day War between Israel and the Arab States, the American intelligence
ship USS Liberty was attacked for 75 minutes in international waters by Israeli
aircraft and motor torpedo boats. 
El
Quseir Israel
reports that they they mistook the American intelligence ship USS Liberty
for the out-of-service Egyptian horse carrier El Quseir .The attack was preceded
by more than six hours of intense low-level surveillance by Israeli
photo-reconnaissance aircraft, which buzzed the intelligence ship thirteen
times, sometimes flying as low as 200 feet directly overhead. The assault that
followed was initiated by high-performance jet aircraft, was followed up by
slower and more maneuverable jets carrying napalm, and was finally turned over
to torpedo boats which fired five torpedoes. Four missed. The one torpedo
that hit the ship blasted a forty-foot hole in the ship's side. The attack
inflicted 821 rocket and machine-gun holes. Thirty-four men died and 171 were
wounded. Beirut
Marine Bombing 
In
the early morning hours of 23 October 1983, a truck loaded with explosives
crashed through the security perimeter of the United States Marine Corps
Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. In the explosion that followed, 241 U.S. Military
personnel were killed and 80 seriously wounded. These young people, on a mission
of peace in a land stricken by violence, were killed as they slept. The Islamic
Jihad claimed responsibility.
more info visit
http://www.beirut-memorial.org
Source:
United States Department of State, CIA
Factbook,Yale Law school
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